Contributor's 101

The OpenOffice.org Documentation Project always welcomes new contributors - especially experienced writers and editors. But no matter what your level of experience is, you can make a valuable contribution. If you are new to OpenOffice.org, or have no writing experience, you can be a great help by reviewing documentation.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Join the Documentation Mailing List and/or others via all lists. Introduce yourself and tell us where your strengths are, and how you would like to help.
• Become a member of the project.
• Set up a user ID on the OpenOffice.org Wiki
• Read and understand the Licences used within the project
• Check the lists of high priority and ongoing tasks below and pick something that interests you.

High Priority Tasks

• Review the tasks in the Task List. Are they still valid?
  • These Tasks are being closed.
• Clean up the Contributing 101 page contents
• Set up a guideline for new Doc Project members

Tasks from the Task List

Anyone can contribute by following this procedure:

1. See the Task List.
2. Log in and go to the task number in IssueTracker.
3. Add yourself to the CC: list, and add a comment to the issue to say you are working on it and what you are doing.
4. Get any relevant downloads from the issue.
5. When you have something to contribute (a new or revised file), upload it to the issue, and tell the mailing list what you have done so other people can comment.
6. Revise the file as needed after comments are received.
7. When everyone, particularly the project leads, are happy with your work, they will upload it to the main Docs pages and link to it.

Ongoing Tasks

• Find items to post to the articles and reviews section. Attach the items to Issue 47818 and mention them on the list.
• FAQs: Any help with updating the FAQs would be greatly appreciated. This work is taking place on the wiki.
• New HowTos, e.g. tips and tricks with Base or any other module that is not something that would be in a user guide but might be useful. For example, a HowTo for creating a Flow Chart using Draw. Check the Task List for suggestions, or start a new issue for a new HowTo. This work is taking place on the wiki.
• Other specific features-oriented type short manuals.
• Samples and templates. More are needed to add to this page.
• Links to other OOo projects' documentation, to add to what is on this page.
• Translations from other languages. A few from French and German have been done but there is much more that could be in English.

Documentation Developers

The majority of the Documentation work is now coordinated and written here on the Wiki.

People with Developer status at the Documentation Project can upload files directly to the Docs website and do other site maintenance duties. If you want to have Developer status, write to the mailing list and ask. This status is not granted automatically.

Once you have received Developer status, you will need to get CVS access. This page has links to FAQs on the subject. The instructions need to be consolidated and rewritten.